Cam link sensor leaks oil onto engine harness, frying all electric components, causing vehicle to stutter while operating

- Lincoln, CA, USA

Driving on the highway with my 6month old baby and suddenly my car surges and loses power. The check engine light flashes and I move to the side of the road with almost no acceleration. Turn off the engine, wait a while then turn it back on and head back home. The cel stayed on but I still had engine power so I thought it was a fluke. This car just has 60K miles on it and I take it to Mercedes for all the routine checks. So this behaviour was out of nowhere. I drove it to Mercedes and got a diagnostic done and I was told the camshaft position sensor had leaked oil into my engine harness and now I need to fix a laundry list of things amounting to $6000. This came out of nowhere and I questioned euromotorcars in germantown md how this could happen. How can a Mercedes that cost so much and goes through regular maintainable just break so significantly. All I got was a 'it happens'! well I think not. I have done some research and apparently this is a well known flaw with Mercedes vehicles. They even had recalls go the same issue but they stop at the 2011 model. My car is 2012, exhibiting the exact same issue due to the inferior parts used during what I can only classify as a terrible engineering decision. This almost caused an accident and put myself and my baby at risk. Several people have had this complaint about the same flaw and same damage to their Mercedes, on older models. Why does this not apply to the 2012 model when it is built with the same inferior part and exhibits the exact same problem. Now I'm stuck with a $6000 bill that is of no fault of mine. I was never made aware during any of my maintenance visits that this sensor is something I need to service or replace. Had I known, that could have saved me a lot of risk and an expensive repair. It appears this is a well know issue and well kept secret with Mercedes dealerships.

- Germantown, MD, USA

The very day I brought my car home from a used car purchase, the moment I pulled in my driveway to park, the message center said, " sos service not activated" in a warning in the center cluster. It wouldn't go away and I didn't know what to do, so I pushed the sos button and mb asked me, " what is your emergency ?" I appologized and explained that I had received a warning message on my dash. They ended the call and I turned off the car. I restarted the car and the warning went away. This was on Feb 1, 2018 at 4:38 P.M.

- Palms Springs, CA, USA